


Rainbows

by 10k_au



Category: z nation
Genre: Cute, Other, Reader Insert, Ukulele
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 02:43:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9414509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/10k_au/pseuds/10k_au
Summary: Reader is from a bad background, finds a ukulele and perhaps finds a way to use it to boost team morale.





	

When Warren had found you, you had been an absolute shell of a person. The way that the last group that you had been with treated you had left scars on your soul that made you something completely different to how you had ever viewed yourself. When she took you back to her group; a bunch of well meaning, kind people, you hadn’t been able to force yourself to say a single word. It hurt to be so fragile, to be in a state that made you the weak link of the pack. But you couldn’t snap out of it, so you didn’t speak, didn’t move. Just sat in the car, went where they told you to go and ate and drank when necessary.

You found that Doc was the nicest of them. He sat with you through your silence, shared food with you when your stomach rumbled. His hand went to your shoulder when you sometimes freaked out and forgot to run. He became almost like a father figure to you, or a friend. If you could have those without even acknowledging their existence. Sometimes you almost made it, almost let a thank you escape your lips or your eyes to dart up to his as a sort of reply. But you shut yourself down each time without even realising that you were doing it.

The time came when the team trusted you enough to go out by yourself with supplies on you. The group needed things badly, the town they were in was huge and the only way to cover the entirety of the area was to split up completely, one person per block of shops. For a moment you were lost, unsure of whether you had the ability to carry the responsibility on your shoulders. But you realised on reflection that this was simply what your abusers had conditioned you to think. That you weren’t worthy of respect or trust and that you were going to fuck up anything that held an ounce of importance.

You decided that you were going to take it upon you, show that you were worthy. That you could do it all by yourself. After everybody else had split off onto their individual runs, you made your way towards the area you’d be searching. The bag in your hand was empty, the lightest reminder that if you didn’t manage to find anything of use to find back, that you were letting your rescuers and friends for that matter, down.

The first shop was what looked like an old music shop. Sheet music was strewn across almost every inch of the floor, crumpled and dirty but still as beautiful as always. You stepped carefully over it all, glancing around to see whether there was anything that may come in handy, you weren’t sure what you were looking for exactly, maybe some varnish or something of the like that could be used to camouflage or seal things from the group that were breaking or rusting. It didn’t take you long however, to find something that interested you more than anything else could have.

A small ukulele stood against a shelf. It was a little damaged, a couple of strings snapped, worse scuffing than you’d ever seen on an instrument before. With a little gasp you picked up the pace, coming to kneel in front of it and trace your fingertips over the pale wood body. It had been years since you’d seen one of these. Even longer since you’d held or played one. You’d tried a couple of times to ask to stop at a music store or two when with your old group.. But of course that had just earned her a beating and the words;

“Why the fuck should you get anything you want?”

After a moment of set in hesitation, you decided to take your chances with this new group. You picked up the ukulele and went about looking for a pack of intact strings to repair it. It took a while but eventually it was looking somewhat playable. With a small smile to yourself you packed it into your bag and went about on your actual job. To find food, clothes and gas.

Back at the truck, morale was low. As everybody counted their finds into the main pack in the back of the truck, stocks were looking few and far between. There were an odd few cans of food, which helped raise everybody’s spirits, but apart from your small haul of bullets and 10k’s find of half a bottle of gas, nobody had anything of notable value.

“It’s alright guys, we’ve still got the next town over. We can hit it tomorrow. We’ll set up camp for the night here.” Warren wasn’t going to say it, but everybody was thinking it. It was going to be another season like black summer. The food they had wasn’t going to last them more than a couple of weeks, and after that… there was only that one last town.

“This is as far from alright as things could get.” Mumbled Murphy, stalking away to the side of the road with his three quarters empty bottle of cloudy water. 10k shook his head, and it didn’t take much for you to realise that it was one of those days where he was particularly fed up with the blue man. He dropped his rifle from his back and threw his bag to the ground next to where Doc was already collating the wood that you’d collected over the past few days for tonight’s fire. The sun was setting quickly and the others looked like they were fading as fast as the day was.

“I just… I really thought this would be the goldmine.” Addy whispered, speaking to nobody in particular, looking off into the distance as she sat down cross legged next to the spot where 10k was curling up, using his pack as a pillow. You watched the Warren and Vasquez talking quietly by the truck, none of them looking particularly happy. You were suddenly extremely scared that everything was going to fall apart. The thing that made this team good was that everybody cared about each other. But if those relationships fell apart under this stress, you could find yourself back in a bad situation similar to the one that you had been in before. Or worse.

You moved across and sat at the opposite side of the fire, the tiny flames dancing before your eyes as Doc and Cassandra tried to get it roaring. The days were warm at this time of year, but the nights were as cold as anything. The fire needed to get going soon if anybody could chance sleeping without the risk of losing some appendages.

The wood and kindling was struggling and Cassandra cursed, getting a couple of words of encouragement from Doc, but nothing like he normally gave. He was finding it as hard as the fire was. Warren and Vasquez came across, sat down a little more distanced from each other than they normally did, granting them a rare reaction from you… a simple eyebrow raise.

You looked to your bag and then back around at the group. The ukulele was sat there, and for a moment you… no. You couldn’t trust them enough to show them that soft side of you. The side that still believed in romance and the power of music. You scanned each of their faces one last time.

You had to. You had to do something.

You unzipped your bag, pulled the instrument out and rested it across your knee for a moment. The others didn’t even seem to realise that you’d moved. They just sat there, all staring at separate points on the ground and not moving at all. You double blinked a couple of times and took a moment to prepare yourself. Then you lifted the ukulele and arranged your fingers. The first strum caught 10k and Addy’s attention, who looked at you with matching frowns. Nobody else looked up.

So you played. The tune you played was sweet, mournful but jaunty at the same time. Over the course of a few seconds, everybody else looked up. It took a while but eventually a few smiles appeared, and one crawled over your lips as well. After a few minutes of the song, you did something that surprised even you.

You started singing,

You sang along with the tune and Warren nodded her head in appreciation. Addy clapped along, whistling out her adoration of your apparently successful attempt at cheering everybody up.

Somewhere over the rainbow way up high /  
And the dreams that you dream of once in a lullaby /  
Somewhere over the rainbow blue birds fly /  
And the dreams that you dream of, dreams really  
do  
come  
true


End file.
